


Secrets and Promises

by the_blue_fairie



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:35:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25415527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_blue_fairie/pseuds/the_blue_fairie
Summary: A young guard speaks open treason against Queen Rapunzel - and the queen's champion must defend her honor.
Relationships: Cassandra/Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel, Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 68





	Secrets and Promises

The queen’s champion.

 _Rapunzel’s_ champion.

There was a time Cass would have seen that as her highest honor.

Especially after her return to Corona.

To be welcomed back, embraced, and to accept that embrace. To accept her place here, in this land she had so long called home. And to be accepted – even after… all she had done… To know in her heart that she had Rapunzel’s love and Eugene’s love and to be at peace –

(She _knew_ she had Rapunzel and Eugene’s love – but she was not at peace…)

It wasn’t supposed to be like this…

Her opponent was _so young…_

Young and hot-blooded, as she had been once…

He had come to Eugene first, for he was fresh among the guards, and Eugene was their captain and Rapunzel’s husband, and the young man had some discretion at first. This was his queen he had seen after all, and he went to Eugene dutifully and told him what he had seen –

Eugene brushed his words aside – and at first, the young man pitied him, assumed he simply did not wish to believe. But when, at last, Eugene swore the guard beneath him to secrecy, that was when the young man began to understand. That was when deference began to turn to defiance.

He started speaking recklessly among the other guards, speaking angrily. Speaking of how the young queen cast aside her marriage vows, speaking of how her husband let her, speaking of how he had caught the young queen in the arms of the woman who had once brought the kingdom low…

Eugene would have fought him himself, to protect both her and Rapunzel – but if the queen’s husband were to fall, then the stories would only spread. If Cassandra were to fall – well, there were some, at least, who would weep for her. Rapunzel would weep for her. Eugene would – and they would both be safe. Her father would, her friends would…

But she would not fall.

That was what pained her.

She did not want to do this, to do injury to this callow youth.

But he refused to relent.

Rapunzel had come to him, begged him – He had spat in her face.

Open treason against the queen.

And yet, he only spoke the truth of what he had seen, the truth of what he knew.

To him, this was not treason but righteousness.

To stand against the crown when the crown was blackened by corruption, stained with sin –

That was nobility that defied the nobles –

Even when, in the end, it pitted him against another lowborn soul –

Even when, in the end, the legacy he fought for was a legacy of greater hypocrisy and shame than Cass and Rapunzel’s stolen kisses –

Their swords clashed.

He was _so_ young.

Hair like straw.

Pale eyes.

No more than a boy.

Boys could do far worse. She thought of Varian in his despair.

But she had no wish to kill a boy.

Rage fueled him. Rage and defiance and misplaced righteousness.

He swung blindly. Hotly.

Staggering forward in a fury.

Did that make him less dangerous or more?

Cassandra’s skill in combat was like a dance.

Like an elegant dance.

There was something of Rapunzel’s elfin quality in her art – gliding forward, backward, not touching the boy and not letting herself be touched.

He recognized the elfin quality in her dance, recognized her kinship with the one she loved.

It made him seethe the more.

She saw the hatred in his eyes. _Fight me, you coward_.

Beyond him, she saw Rapunzel on the podium, hair rustling in the wind –

Brilliant as the sun – and the sun can be blinding –

She stumbled. He slashed.

Breaths sucked in.

Rapunzel on high – queen and judge and, at the same time, judged.

Holding in her breath.

Eyes wide.

Cass took in her anguish, took in her desperation, her paralysis on that pedestal –

Her heart pounded.

She regained her footing – and soon enough, it was the boy who was not merely on his knees but on his back, on the ground in the dirt – a saber pressed to his throat, small drops of blood prickling from his neck…

The combat grounds were as stone.

The roar of thunder was Cassandra’s own heartbeat in her chest.

She breathed raggedly before she could finally speak.

“Do… you… yield?”

_Please say yes. I don’t want your blood on my hands. Even if you don’t, I won’t kill you. I’m not like that. I have… too much on my conscience already. Please…_

His eyes were glinting with hatred.

And then – hoarsely –

“I yield! The queen is innocent!”

Relief.

Relief from Cassandra, who felt sick at heart.

Relief from Rapunzel – who, standing straight upon her pedestal, suddenly slackened, crumpling into Eugene’s embrace, desperate for Cassandra’s…

Relief from Eugene, who held her as she seemed on the verge of tears.

Lancelot, Guinevere, and Arthur.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

But it was – and when swift night came, the boy had been drummed out of the guards, Eugene had murmured that they all were safe, and Rapunzel stole under moonlight to the gardens – where she kissed Cassandra greedily, hungrily, desperately – as if in fear that any moment, she might be brought to the stake.

She had more than a Lancelot to save her.

Her Lancelot and her Arthur both would protect her.

Still she kissed with a desperate hunger, her lips burning as with the most intoxicating wine – but it was not wine, it was not intoxication. Under moonlight, after the shadow of the day, this was her only hope for clarity, her only hope for… hope.


End file.
